Dragon Quest Builders North American Release Date Announced

Square Enix announced both a North American and European release date for the upcoming Action-RPG Dragon Quest Builders.

Dragon Quest Builders hits North America on Oct 11, 2016 for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita. European players get the game three days later, on Oct 14, 2016. In addition, Square Enix also announced a Day One Edition of Dragon Quest Builders. The Day One Edition features exclusive building materials, including a Slimy Block recipe, a Gold Block recipe, and a Sprinkletide Sparkles recipe.

Dragon Quest Builders is a spin-off of the long running role-playing franchise, and takes place in Alefgard, the world of the original Dragon Quest game. The game takes place in an alternate timeline, where the hero was defeated by the villainous Dragonlord and plunged the world into chaos, filling it with various monsters. You take the role as a builder, helping reclaim the world from the evil that rules the land. The gameplay is inspired by titles like Minecraft, and is being touted as the first title in a new genre dubbed the Block-Make RPG; where players will collect materials around the world to create their own towns. The story is developed by series creator Yuji Horii featuring artwork by Akira Toriyama — known for his work in the Dragon Quest Series and for creating Dragon Ball — as well as music by Koichi Sugiyama.

Dragon Quest Builders already launched in Japan in January with a strong reception, selling out of the first batch physical copies on day one. Now with the launch looming over the Western World, Square Enix hopes to replicate that success. In an email interview with CGMagazine, series producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto says the game “has a universal appeal, especially with the sandbox gameplay, so I do think it would be received the same way as in Japan and Asia.”

We have an exclusive interview with Fujimoto-san in our upcoming JRPG themed June and July print edition of CGMagazine.